Roofing machine



Aug. 25, 1,942. L. H. WILKENS ETAL ROOFING MACHINE Filed Sept. 12, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l l?? ATTo Aug. 25, 1942. L. H. wlLKENs ET AL ROOFING MACHINE Filed Sept. 12, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 a LIIXJNTORS d /ZATT @gms 12e 106' as Patente-d Aug. 25, 1942 ROOFING MACHINE Leo H. Wilkens, Dayton, and Edward T. Wilkens, Minster, Ohio Application September 1'2, 1940,.Serial No. 356,470

2 Claims.

vide forming rollers driven by contacting the edges of the metal that is being formed.

Another object of this invention is to provide rollers for feeding sheet metal through a forming device, which rollers function both as pulling and pushing type rollers.

Another object of this invention is to provide a metal forming device particularly adaptable for forming fabricated roofing material, which device is dependable, accurate, easily constructed, available at a low price and at the same time efficient.

Other objects and advantages reside in the construction of parts, the combination thereof and the mode of operation, as will become more apparent from the following description.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 represents a side elevation of the metal forming machine,

adaptable to form continuous length sheets into any suitable cross sectional area such as required by roong material and other sheet metal usages.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary cross sectional View of the feeding and forming rollers comprising the rst forming stage. This sectional View is taken substantially on the line 2 2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of the feeding and forming rollers comprising the second stage. This sectional View is taken substantially on the line 3 3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is an end view showing the forming rollers of the final stage, as seen in the direction of the arrow 4 4 in Figure 1. In this view some of the frame has been broken away.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary cross sectional View taken substantially on the line 5 5 of Figure 1, so as to show the adjustable guiding mechanism.

Figure 6 is an end view showing the flexible mounting of the feed rollers to permit a transverse seam to be passed through the machine.

Although various attempts have been made to provide a portable metal forming machine for forming roofing material into the desired shape, the majority of metallic roong material that is laid on buildings such as farm buildings and the like is either formed at the factory and shipped in predetermined lengths to the destination where it is to be used, or the sheet metal is formed manually on the job. In some sections of the country, most sheet metal roof-lng material is purchased in rolls and then formed on the job by the use of hand tongs.

Attempts have been made in the past to produce machines that will form sheet metal with the proper flanges, V-notches or grooves.y Illustrations of one type of machine that has been attempted is shown in the patent to Reynolds No.V 104,647. However, in this machine the forming rollers are integral with the feed rollers.

Utilizing some types of metal, this may prove satisfactory; but the present day alloys used in roofing material have been made to withstand corrosion and have only sufficient tensile strength to hold the sheets in position. Such sheet metal is generally protected by a coating of galvanizing material that must be gently handled. Otherwise, the galvanizing material is abraded or scraped olf in spots, defeating the purpose of the galvanizing coating. The machines shown in the past, as illustrated by the above referred-to patent, fail to meet present day requirements.

In the drawings, the base of the machine includes a` plurality of legs I l] held in suitable spaced relation by spacing members l2 and supporting horizontal angle iron frame members I4 and I6. The frame structure may be braced in any suitable manner, depending entirely upon the requirements of the device. The frame members are preferably made from angle iron, so as to provide a light frame structure, having sufficient strength. The angle frame members I4 support a pair of bearing brackets 20, having journalled therein suitable supporting rollers I8 which are freely rotatable. These rollers are adapted to support a roll of sheet metal 30. The sheet metal from the roll 39- advances between a pair of parallel guides 32, one oneach side of the sheet metal, which guide the `sheet metal through a well defined path to the feed rollers;

Each of the guides 32 includes an angle bar-32a adjustably mounted upon fra-me members I6, as clearly shown in Figure 5. This angle barl 32a supports-a second angle bar 3217. The angle bar 32h is smaller than the angle bar 32a and is adjustably attached thereto by a bolt 32e. If a narrower or wider sheet of metal is used, the angle bar 32a held in positiony by the bolts 32d may be adjusted either in the slots or elongated holes shown for the bolts 32d, or these bolts may be inserted in other holes (not shown) provided rcooperate with the is changed or for any other reason it is found desirable to raise or lower angle bar 32D, this may be done through the medium of the bolt 32e extending through a suitable slot. By this arrangement, the same machine may be used for forming various widths of sheet metal and various thicknesses of sheet metal. These guides extend from the proximity of the roll 30 to the rst stage of the operating mechanism. In the drawings, the frame has been cut for the sake of economy of space, so as to show the whole machine on one sheet. The guides are quite long, so as to accurately align the sheet metal before it reaches the first operating stage. After the sheet metal leaves the guides 32, it passes through several operating stages, progressively forming the sheet metal. The rst stage begins the formation. This may be followed by an intermediate stage and a final stage. The number of stages is dependent upon the type of seam to be produced. The first of these stages will now be described.

Fz'rst stage The sheet advances through the guides 32 to a plurality of pairs of feed rollers mounted upon shafts'34 and 36. The lower shaft 34 has keyed thereto a pair of end feed rollers 38 and a supporting roller 40. The feed rollers 38 are mounted for axial adjustment on the shaft 34 and keyed in position by suitable set screws 42. The ends of the shaft 34 are journalled in a pair of bearing brackets 20, one adjacent each end. One end of the shaft 34 projects beyond the frame and supports a gear 44 and a sprocket wheel 46. The sprocket wheel is driven from a source of power which will be described more fully later. The upper shaft 36 supports a pair of feed rollers 50 near each end thereof, which lrollers are also adjustably mounted and held in position by suitable set screws 52. In addition thereto, the shaft 36 near the center thereof supports a supporting roller 54, preventing the center of the sheet from sagging or bulging. The rollers 50 rollers 38, as do the supporting rollers 54 and 40, to grip the sheet 30 and pull the sheet from the roll of sheet metal and advance it through the machine.

As viewed in Figure 2, the right end of the shaft 34 supports an idle forming roller 60 provided With a bevelled surface and the left end supports a second idle forming roller 62 provided with oppositely disposed conical surfaces 62a and 62h. Rollers 60 and 62 are free to rotate independently of the shaft 34 and independently of the rollers 38. These idle vrollers 60 and 62 constitute forming rollers, deecting the edges of the sheet metal. As may be seen to the right of Figure 2, the edge on the right side of the sheet metal 30 is deiiected upwardly slightly and as seen to the left of Figure 2, the left edge of the sheet metal is formed into a slight V-shaped formation. The roller 62, shown to the left, cooperates with an idle forming roller 64, mounted for free rotation upon the shaft 36, to form the left edge of the sheet metal, as viewed in Figure 2. The forming rollers 60, 62 and 64 are rotated by frictionally engaging the edges of the metal. If these rollers were xedly attached to the drive shafts 34 and 36, the peripheral speed of the bevelled surface of the forming rollers 60 and 62 would be greater than the peripheral speed of the feed rollers 38 and 50.

If the forming rollers were keyed to the shafts, the forming rollers would exert a marginal pull upon the sheet metal, tending to warp, twist, break and mutilate the edges of the sheet metal. Before constructing the machine disclosed herein, a machine having the forming rollers keyed to the shaft and integral with the feed rollers, similar to the disclosure in the patent t0 Reynolds No. 104,647 was constructed. This machine, with the forming rollers positively driven in unison With the feed rollers, so distorted the metal that it was unfit for use as roofing material. Furthermore, the forming rollers positively driven with the feed rollers destroyed the effectiveness of the galvanized surface of the sheet metal. That being the case, it was found to be absolutely unsatisfactory to use a machine wherein the forming rollers were integral with the feed rollers. This objection was overcome by usingidle rollers as forming rollers, which idle rollers are driven by the friction of the sheet metal in the process of formation.

The upper shaft 36 is mounted in bearing brackets 26. These bearing brackets are resiliently mounted upon the angle frame brackets I6. As may be best seen by referring to Figure 6, both ends of the bracket 20 are resiliently mounted upon the frame I6. YThe left hand end of the bracket 20, as viewed in Figure 6, is held in position by means of a bolt I0 passing through the frame member I6. The head of this bolt 'I0 coopcrates With a spring 12 to urge the bracket 20 into contact with the frame member I6. 'The opposite end of the bracket is held in position by a bolt 14 cooperating with a spring 16, to resliently urge this end of the bracket into engagement with the frame I6. This provides a resilient mounting for the shaft 36 and the feed rollers 50.

When all of the metal on the roll 30 has been used, a new roll 30 is placed upon the supporting rollers I8. The ends of the sheet metal 30 are joined by an interlocking seam, as is well known to those skilled in the art. This seam may be v four or five times as thick as the average thickness of the metal. As this seam approaches the feed rollers, the springs I4 and I6 yield, so as to permit the feed rollers 50 to spread away from the feed rollers 38, to allow the seam to be fed through the feed rollers. As the feed rollers 50 raise with respect to the feed rollers 38, the idle roller 64 carried upon the end of the shaft 36 is also raised, so as to permit the margin of the sheet metal to pass through the machine and be deflected and formed the same as the balance of the sheet metal.

Second stage The sheet metal advances from the first stage to a succeeding operating stage. In the second operating stage the mechanism is similar to the parts in the first stage. The forming rollers differ in degree. The mechanism for the second operating stage includes a pair of shafts and 82 supporting feed rollers 38 and 56 and the supporting rollers 40 and 54 identical to those already described. The shaft 8U supports idle rollers 84 and 86, similar to idle rollers 60 and 62; but provided with a larger or steeper forming surface. The upper shaft 82 supports a grooved forming roller 88. The forming rollers 84, 86 and 88 are mounted for free rotation upon their respective shafts. The ends of the shafts 80 and 82 are providedv with suitable gears 44 and'45, which are driven in a manner similar to that described in connection with the shafts 34 and 36; As the sheet passes through the second stage of operation, the flange to the left of the sheet is formed through an angle of substantially 60 with respect to the main body of the sheet. Likewise, the margin to the left of the sheet has been formed into a more ab-rupt angle. It is desirable to have the margin 30a, on the right hand side of the sheet formed into a flange extending normal to the main body portion of the sheet. Likewise, the portion 30h should extend in a direction normal to the main body of the sheet and the portion 30o should form a reentrant flange. The final operation of the sheet is performed in a third stage by a mechanism now to be described.

Third stage In the third stage there are no feed rollers corresponding to the rollers 38 and 50. This third stage includes a driven shaft 90, driven from a responding to theshafts 36 and 82 in the other stages, has been used. The lower shaft 90 has keyed thereto forming rollers which are provided with flanges Il. These flanges |0| are provided with a radially disposed surface lla forming a right angle corner with respect to the peripheral surface of the main body portion of the rollers |00. This forms an abrupt corner, so that when the metal is forced into this corner a flange is formed normal to the main body portion of the metal. The flanges |0| have also been provided with a bevelled surface |0|b. For the particular type of seam formed on the sheet metal shown herein, the bevelled surface |0|b of the roller shown to the right of Figure I has no particular utility. However, for the sake of economy in production, the rollers |00 located on the left hand side and to the right hand side are identical. The forming roller |00 and its flange IGI located on the right hand side 0f the machine, as viewed in Figure 4, cooperates with a yforming wheel or roller |02 provided with a pair of bevelled surfaces forming a right angle with respect to each other to form the flange a in a direction normal to the main body portion of the sheet. This forming wheel |02 is driven by the frictional contact with the sheet that is pushed through the third stage by the feed rollers described in connection with the first and second stages. The forming wheel |02 is mounted so that its axis of rotation forms an angle of approximately with respect to the axis of rotation of the shaft 90. This forming wheel |02 is mounted in a yoke 04 and biased into the corner of the sheet metal by a pair of springs |06, tensioned by a suitable set screw |08. One fork of the yoke |00 is provided with an extension IMa mounted upon a bracket l0 attached to the side of the angle frame members I4 and I6. If additional pressure is required to properly form the flange 30a, this set screw |08 is tightened. If the roller |02 exerts too great a pressure so as to tend to mutilate the surface of the metal or too much force is required to feed the metal through the third stage, the tension upon the roller |02 may be eased by loosening the screw |00.

The forming roller |00, located on the left hand side of Figure 4, cooperates with a pair of idle forming rollers or wheels |20 and |22 to form the left hand margin of the sheet metal into the proper formation. The forming rollers |20 and |22 are supported in a supporting` member |24 having a pair of yoke portions |26 and |28. The yoke portion |26 corresponds to the yoke |04: as far as its forming wheel is concerned. A pair of helical springs |00. biases the forming roller |20 into a corner of the sheet metal 30. The tension of these springs` may be adjusted by a suitable set screw |08, substantially identical to the one already described in connection with the forming roller |02. The contour of the forming roller |25] is substantially identical tothe contour 0f the forming roller |02 in that the forming roller |20 has been provided with a pair of bevelled edges extending at right angles to each other. The forming roller |22 is also biased against the bevelled surface |0|a by a pair of springs |06, theA tension of which is adjusted by a set screw |08. The contacting surface of the roller |22 is flat, in that the contacting surface of this, roller is parallel to the longitudinal axis of rotation of the roller |22.

As the sheet metal passes out of the forming machine, it is preferably cut into proper lengths. The machine is well suited for forming a sheet passing rapidly through the machine. In one machine that has been constructed, forty to fty feet advances through the machine per minute. This production could undoubtedly be speeded up .for some types of work. In the first two stages the idle rollers rotate about an axis common to the axis of rotation of the feed rollers. In the third stage some of the forming rollers rotate about an axis parallel to the axis of rotation of the feed rollers and the forming rollers on the opposite side of the sheet are mounted for rotation about an axis forming acute angles with respect to the first mentioned axis.

By a slight modification and rearrangement of the rolls, the device disclosed herein could be utilized in manufacturing other articles from sheet metal, as for example, spouts for gutters or eavestroughs. The rollers then, of course, would be adjusted so as to operate upon a narrower strip, so that the finished product would simulate conventional eavestroughs. Furthermore, the device may be modified to produce other shapes and dimensions, Without departing from the principles disclosed herein.

Although the preferred modification of the device has been described, it will be understood that within the purview of this invention various changes may be made in the form, details, proportion and arrangement of parts, the combination thereof and mode of operation, which generally stated consist in a device capable of carrying out the objects set forth, as disclosed and defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, We claim:

1. A sheet metal forming machine for forming a metal strip with complementary parts of a standing seam for sheet metal roofing, said machine including a frame, means mounted in the frame for supporting a roll of continuous length sheet metal and three stages of sheet metal forming means mounted on said frame, each of two of said stages including a pair of parallel shafts, a pair of sheet metal feed rollers Xedly mounted on each shaft, the pair of feed rollers on one shaft cooperating with a like pair of feed rollers mounted on the other shaft of the same pair of shafts, and idly mounted forming rollers mounted for rotation on certain of said shafts adjacent the feed rollers and cooperating therewith to partially form the aforesaid complementary parts of the seam, the third stage including a driven shaft parallel to said parallel shafts, a pair of driven anged forming rollers xedly secured to said shaft, said forming rollers being positioned on one side of the sheet, idle forming rollers located on the other side of the sheet, means for supporting saididly mounted forming rollers upon axes of rotation forming acute angles with the axis of rotation of the driven forming rollers and in cooperating relationship With one of the flanged rollers to form one part of the complementary parts of the seam, and a third idle forming roller, meansk for mounting said third idle forming roller at an angle with respect to the axis of rotation of the driven forming rollers, said idle forming rollers cooperating With the bevelled edge of the flanged portion of the other driven forming roller to finish the forming operation of the other part of the complementary part of the seam prior to the laying of the roofing.

2. A forming machine for forming a' strip of sheet metal With complementary parts of a standing seam, said formed sheet having a standing flange along one edge and an inverted V- portion along the opposite edge, said machine including tvvo pairs of parallel shafts, means for driving said shafts, a pair of sheet metal feed rollers flxedly mounted on each shaft, the pair of feed rollers on one shaft cooperating with a like pair of feed rollers mounted on the other shaft of the same pair of shafts, and idly mounted forming rollers mounted for rotation on certain of said shafts adjacent the feed rollers and cooperating therewith to partially form the aforesaid complementary parts of the seam, finishing means including a pair of rollers having flanges, a shaft for supporting said rollers having anges, means for driving said shaft and the rollers having flanges, one of said flanges being bevelled, idle forming rollers cooperating With said roller having a bevelled flange, means for supporting said idle forming rollers at an angle of approximately 45 with respect to the axis of rotation of the rollers having flanges and in a manner to cooperate with said bevelled fiange to form the V- portion of the standing seam, a third idle roller cooperating with the other roller having a flange to form the standing flange on the opposite edge of the sheet, and means for supporting said third roller in contact with the standing flange abutting the adjacent roller having a flange. LEO H. WILKENS. EDWARD T. WILKENS. 

